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1911 
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A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 


SKETCH 


OF 


A  New  Esthetic  of  Music 


BY 

FERRUCCIO    BUSONI 


Translated  from  the  German  by 

Dr.  TH.   baker 


NEW  YORK  :  G.   SCHIRMER 
1911 


UNIV.  OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY.  LOS  ANGELES 


Copyright,  1907 
By  FERRUCCIO  BUSONI 

Copyright,  1911 
By  G.  SCHIRMER 

82375 


Huslo 
Library 

ML 

\iii  ., 

SKETCH   OF  A  NEW  ESTHETIC 
OF  MUSIC 

"  What  seek  you  ?    Say  !  And  what  do  you  expect  ?  " — 
I  know  not  what ;  the  Unknown  I  would  have  ! 
What's  known  to  me,  is  endless  ;  I  would  go 
Beyond  the  end  :  The  last  word  still  is  wanting." 

[^^  Der  macMige  Zatiberer."^ 

T  OOSELY  joined  together  as  regards  literary 
^-^  form,  the  following  notes  are,  in  reaUty,  the 
outcome  of  convictions  long  held  and  slowly  ma- 
tured. 

In  them  a  problem  of  the  first  magnitude  is 
formulated  with  apparent  simplicity,  without  giv- 
ing the  key  to  its  final  solution;  for  the  problem 
cannot  be  solved  for  generations — if  at  all. 

But  it  involves  an  innumerable  series  of  lesser 
problems,  which  I  present  to  the  consideration  of 
those  whom  they  may  concern.  For  it  is  a  long 
time  since  any  one  has  devoted  himself  to  earnest 
musical  research. 

It  is  true,  that  admirable  works  of  genius  arise 
in  every  period,  and  I  have  always  taken  my  stand 
in  the  front  rank  of  those  who  joyfully  acclaimed 
the  passing  standard-bearers;  and  still  it  seems  to 
me  that  of  all  these  beautiful  paths  leading  so  far 
afield — none  lead  upward. 


2  A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

The  spirit  of  an  art-work^  the  measure  of  emotion^, 
of  humanity^  that  is  in  it— these  remain  unchanged  in 
value  through  changing  years;  the  form  which  these 
three  assumed,  the  manner  of  their  expression,  and  the 
flavor  of  the  epoch  which  gave  them  birth,  are  transient, 
and  age  rapidly. 

Spirit  and  emotion  retain  their  essence,  in  the 
art- work  as  in  man  himself;  we  admire  technical 
achievements,  yet  they  are  outstripped,  or  cloy  the 
taste  and  are  discarded. 

Its  ephemeral  qualities  give  a  work  the  stamp 
of  "modernity;"  its  unchangeable  essence  hinders 
it  from  becoming  "obsolete."  Among  both  "mod- 
ern" and  "old"  works  we  find  good  and  bad,, 
genuine  and  spurious.  There  is  nothing  properly 
modern — only  things  which  have  come  into  being 
earlier  or  later;  longer  in  bloom,  or  sooner  withered. 
The  Modern  and  the  Old  have  always  been. 

Art-forms  are  the  more  lasting,  the  more  closely 
they  adhere  to  the  nature  of  their  individual 
species  of  art,  the  purer  they  keep  their  essential 
means  and  ends. 

Sculpture  relinquishes  the  expression  of  the 
human  pupil,  and  effects  of  color;  painting  degener- 
ates, when  it  forsakes  the  flat  surface  in  depiction 
and  takes  on  complexity  in  theatrical  decoration 
or  panoramic  portrayal. 

Architecture  has  its  fundamental  form,  growth 
from  below  upward,  prescribed  by  static  necessity; 
window  and  roof  necessarily  provide  the  inter- 


CHARACTERIZATION   OF  THE   ARTS  3 

mediate  and  finishing  configuration;  these  are 
eternal  and  inviolable  requirements  of  the  art. 

Poetry  commands  the  abstract  thought,  which 
it  clothes  in  words.  More  independent  than  the 
■others,  it  reaches  the  furthest  bounds. 

But  all  arts,  resources  and  forms  ever  aim  at  the 
one  end,  namely,  the  imitation  of  nature  and  the 
interpretation  of  human  feelings. 


Architecture,  sculpture,  poetry  and  painting  are 
■old  and  mature  arts;  their  conceptions  are  estab- 
lished and  their  objects  assured;  they  have  found 
the  way  through  uncounted  centuries,  and,  like  the 
planets,  describe  their  regular  orbits.* 

Music,  compared  with  them,  is  a  child  that  has 
learned  to  walk,  but  must  still  be  led.  It  is  a 
virgin  art,  without  experience  in  life  and  suffering. 

It  is  all  unconscious  as  yet  of  what  garb  is 
becoming,  of  its  own  advantages,  its  unawakened 
capacities.  And  again,  it  is  a  child-marvel  that  is 
already  able  to  dispense  much  of  beauty,  that  has 
already  brought  joy  to  many,  and  whose  gifts  are 
-commonly  held  to  have  attained  full  maturity. 

* 

Music  as  an  art,  our  so-called  occidental"  music, 
is  hardly  four  hundred  years  old;  its  state  is  one 

*  None  the  less,  in  these  arts,  taste  and  individuality  can 
and  will  unceasingly  find  refreshment  and  rejuvenation. 


4  A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

of  development,  perhaps  the  very  first  stage  of  a 
development  beyond  present  conception,  and  we — 
we  talk  of  "classics"  and  "hallowed  traditions"! 
And  we  have  talked  of  them  for  a  long  time!* 

We  have  formulated  rules,  stated  principles,  laid 
down  laws; — we  apply  laws  made  for  maturity  to  a 
child  that  knows  nothing  of  responsibility! 


Young  as  it  is,  this  child,  we  already  recognize 
that  it  possesses  one  radiant  attribute  which  signal- 
izes it  beyond  all  its  elder  sisters.  And  the  law- 
givers will  not  see  this  marvelous  attribute,  lest 
their  laws  should  be  thrown  to  the  winds.  This 
child — it  floats  on  air  !  It  touches  not  the  earth 
with  its  feet.  It  knows  no  law  of  gravitation.  It 
is  wellnigh  incorporeal.  Its  material  is  transparent. 
It  is  sonorous  air.     It  is  almost  Nature  herself. 

It  is — free. 

* 

*  * 

But  freedom  is  something  that  mankind  have 
never  wholly  comprehended,  never  realized  to  the 
full.  They  can  neither  recognize  nor  acknowl- 
edge' it. 

They  disavow  the  mission  of  this  child;  they 
hang  weights  upon  it.     This  buoyant  creature  must 

*  Tradition  is  a  plaster  mask  taken  from  life,  which,  in  the 
course  of  many  years,  and  after  passing  through  the  hands 
of  innumerable  artisans,  leaves  its  resemblance  to  the  origi- 
nal largely  a  matter  of  imagination. 


ABSOLUTE  MUSIC 


■walk  decently,  like  anybody  else.  It  may  scarcely 
be  allowed  to  leap — when  it  were  its  joy  to  follow 
the  line  of  the  rainbow,  and  to  break  sunbeams 
with  the  clouds. 


Music  was  born  free;  and  to  win  freedom  is  its 
destiny.  It  will  become  the  most  complete  of  all 
reflexes  of  Nature  by  reason  of  its  untrammeled 
immateriality.  Even  the  poetic  word  ranks  lower 
in  point  of  incorporealness.  It  can  gather  together 
and  disperse,  can  be  motionless  repose  or  wildest 
tempestuosity ;  it  has  the  extremest  heights  per- 
ceptible to  man — what  other  art  has  these? — and 
its  emotion  seizes  the  human  heart  with  that 
intensity  which  is  independent  of  the  "idea." 

It  realizes  a  temperament,  without  describing  it, 
with  the  mobility  of  the  soul,  with  the  swiftness  of 
consecutive  moments;  and  this,  where  painter  or 
sculptor  can  represent  only  one  side  or  one  moment, 
and  the  poet  tardily  communicates  a  temperament 
and  its  manifestations  by  words. 

Therefore,  representation  and  description  are  not 

the  nature  of  music;     herewith  we  declare  the 

invalidity   of   program-music,   and   arrive    at    the 

question :     What  are  the  aims  of  music? 

* 

A  BSOLUTE  Music  !  What  the  lawgivers  mean 
■^  ^  by  this,  is  perhaps  remotest  of  all  from  the 
Absolute  in  music.     "Absolute  music"  is  a  form- 


6  A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

play  without  poetic  program,  in  which  the  form  is 
intended  to  have  the  leading  part.  But  Form,  in 
itself,  is  the  opposite  pole  of  absolute  music,  on 
which  was  bestowed  the  divine  prerogative  of 
buoyancy,  of  freedom  from  the  limitations  of 
matter.  In  a  picture,  the  illustration  of  a  sunset 
ends  with  the  frame;  the  limitless  natural  phe- 
nomenon is  enclosed  in  quadrilateral  bounds;  the 
cloud-form  chosen  for  depiction  remains  unchang- 
ing for  ever.  Music  can  grow  brighter  or  darker, 
shift  hither  or  yon,  and  finally  fade  away  like  the 
sunset  glow  itself;  and  instinct  leads  the  creative 
musician  to  employ  the  tones  that  press  the  same 
key  within  the  human  breast,  and  awaken  the 
same  response,  as  the  processes  in  Nature. 

Per  contra,  "absolute  music"  is  something  very 
sober,  which  reminds  one  of  music-desks  in  orderly 
rows,  of  the  relation  of  Tonic  to  Dominant,  of 
Developments  and  Codas. 

Methinks  I  hear  the  second  violin  struggling,  a 
fourth  below,  to  emulate  the  more  dexterous  first, 
and  contending  in  needless  contest  merely  to  arrive 
at  the  starting-point.  This  sort  of  music  ought 
rather  to  be  called  the  "architectonic,"  or  "sym- 
metric," or  "sectional,"  and  derives  from  the  cir- 
cumstance that  certain  composers  poured  their 
spirit  and  their  emotion  into  just  this  mould 
as  lying  nearest  them  or  their  time.  Our  law- 
givers have  identified  the  spirit  and  emotion,  the 
individuality  of  these  composers  and  their  time. 


THE  FETISH  OF  FORM  7 

with  "symmetric"  music,  and  finally,  being  power- 
less to  recreate  either  the  spirit,  or  the  emotion, 
or  the  time,  have  retained  the  Form  as  a  symbol, 
and  made  it  into  a  fetish,  a  reUgion.  The  com- 
posers sought  and  found  this  form  as  the  aptest 
vehicle  for  communicating  their  ideas;  their  souls 
took  flight — and  the  lawgivers  discover  and  cherish 
the  garments  Euphorion  left  behind  on  earth. 

A  lucky  find  !    'Twas  now  or  never  ; 
The  flame  is  gone,  it's  true — however, 

No  need  to  pity  mankind  now. 
Enough  is  left  for  many  a  poet's  tiring, 

Or  to  breed  envy  high  and  low  ; 
And  though  I  have  no  talents  here  for  hiring, 

I'll  hire  the  robe  out,  anyhow. 

Is  it  not  singular,  to  demand  of  a  composer 
originality  in  all  things,  and  to  forbid  it  as  regards 
form?  No  wonder  that,  once  he  becomes  original, 
he  is  accused  of  "formlessness."  Mozart!  the 
seeker  and  the  finder,  the  great  man  with  the 
childlike  heart — it  is  he  we  marvel  at,  to  whom  we 
are  devoted;  but  not  his  Tonic  and  Dominant,  his 
Developments  and  Codas. 

Such  lust  of  liberation  filled  Beethoven,  the 
romantic  revolutionary,  that  he  ascended  one  short 
step  on  the  way  leading  music  back  to  its  loftier 
self: — a  short  step  in  the  great  task,  a  wide  step 
in  his  own  path.     He  did  not  quite  reach  absolute 


8  A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

music,  but  in  certain  moments  he  divined  it,  as  in 
the  introduction  to  the  fugue  of  the  Sonata  for 
Hammerclavier.  Indeed,  all  composers  have  drawn 
nearest  the  true  nature  of  music  in  preparatory 
and  intermediary  passages  (preludes  and  transi- 
tions), where  they  felt  at  liberty  to  disregard 
symmetrical  proportions,  and  unconsciously  drew 
free  breath.  Even  a  Schumann  (of  so  much  lower 
stature)  is  seized,  in  such  passages,  by  some  feeling 
of  the  boundlessness  of  this  pan-art  (recall  the 
transition  to  the  last  movement  of  the  D-minor 
Symphony);  and  the  same  may  be  asserted  of 
Brahms  in  the  introduction  to  the  Finale  of  his 
First  Symphony. 

But,  the  moment  they  cross  the  threshold  of  the 
Principal  Subject,  their  attitude  becomes  stiff  and 
conventional,  like  that  of  a  man  entering  some 
bureau  of  high  officialdom. 

*  * 

Next  to  Beethoven,  Bach  bears  closest  affinity 
to  ''infinite  music."*  His  Organ  Fantasias  (but 
not  the  Fugues)  have  indubitably  a  strong  dash  of 
what  might  be  overwritten  ''Man  and  Nature."! 
In  him  it  appears  most  ingenuous  because  he  had 

*  "  Die  Ur-Musik,"  is  the  author's  happy  phrase.  But  as 
this  music  never  has  been,  our  English  terms  like  "  primitive," 
"original,"  etc.,  would  involve  a  7ion  sequitur  which  ia 
avoided,  at  least,  by  "  infinite."     [Translator's  Note.] 

t  In  the  recitatives  of  his  Passions  we  hear  "  human 
speech  "  ;  not  "  correct  declamation." 


BACH,   BEETHOVEN,   WAGNER  9 

no  reverence  for  his  predecessors  (although  he 
esteemed  and  made  use  of  them),  and  because  the 
still  novel  acquisition  of  equal  temperament  opened 
a  vista  of — for  the  time  being — endless  new  possi- 
bilities. 

Therefore,  Bach  and  Beethoven*  are  to  be 
conceived  as  a  beginning,  and  not  as  unsurpassable 
finahties.  In  spirit  and  emotion  they  will  probably 
remain  unexcelled;  and  this,  again,  confirms  the 
remark  at  the  beginning  of  these  lines:  That 
spirit  and  emotion  remain  unchanged  in  value 
through  changing  years,  and  that  he  who  mounts 
to  their  uttermost  heights  will  always  tower  above 

the  crowd. 

* 
*  * 

What  still  remains  to  be  surpassed,  is  their  form 
of  expression  and  their  freedom.  Wagner,  a  Ger- 
manic Titan,  who  touched  our  earthly  horizon  in 
orchestral  tone-effect,  who  intensified  the  form  of 
expression,  but  fashioned  it  into  a  system  (music- 
drama,  declamation,  leading-motive),  is  on  this 
account  incapable  of  further  intensification.  His 
category    begins    and    ends    with    himself;    first, 

*A8  characteristic  traits  of  Beethoven's  individuality  I 
would  mention  the  poetic  fire,  the  strong  human  feeling 
(whence  springs  his  revolutionary  temper),  and  a  portent  of 
modem  nervousness.  These  traits  are  certainly  opposed  to 
those  of  a  "  classic."  Moreover,  Beethoven  is  no  "  master," 
as  the  term  applies  to  Mozart  or  the  later  Wagner,  just 
because  his  art  foreshadows  a  greater,  as  yet  incomplete. 
(Compare  the  section  next-following.) 


10  A  NEW  ESTHETIC   OF  MUSIC 

because  he  carried  it  to  the  highest  perfection  and 
finish;  secondly,  because  his  self-imposed  task  was 
of  such  a  nature,  that  it  could  be  achieved  by  one 
man  alone.*  The  paths  opened  by  Beethoven  can 
be  followed  to  their  end  only  through  generations. 
They — Hke  all  things  in  creation — may  form  only 
a  circle;  but  a  circle  of  such  dimensions,  that  the 
portion  visible  to  us  seems  like  a  straight  line. 
Wagner's  circle  we  can  view  in  its  entirety — a  circle 
within  the  great  circle. 


^T^HE  name  of  Wagner  leads  to  program-music. 
-*-  This  has  been  set  up  as  a  contrast  to  so-called 
"absolute"  music,  and  these  concepts  have  become 
so  petrified  that  even  persons  of  intelUgence  hold 
one  or  the  other  dogma,  without  recognition  for  a 
third  possibility  beyond  and  above  the  other  two. 
In  reahty,  program-music  is  precisely  as  one-sided 
and  limited  as  that  which  is  called  absolute.  In 
place  of  architectonic  and  symmetric  formulas, 
instead  of  the  relation  of  Tonic  to  Dominant,  it 
has  bound  itself  in  the  stays  of  a  connecting 
poetic — sometimes  even  philosophic — program. 


Every  motive — so  it  seems  to  me — contains,  like 
a    seed,    its    life-germ    within    itself.     From    the 

*  "  Together  with  the  problem,  it  gives  us  the  solution," 
as  I  once  said  of  Mozart. 


PROGRAM  AND  MOTIVE  II 

different    plant-seeds    grow    different    families   of 

plants,  dissimilar  in  form,  foliage,  blossom,  fruit, 

growth  and  color  * 

Even  each  individual  plant  belonging  to  one  and 

the  same  species  assumes,  in  size,  form  and  strength, 

a  growth  peculiar  to  itself.     And  so,  in  each  motive, 

there  Hes  the  embryo  of  its  fully  developed  form; 

each  one  must  unfold  itself  differently,  yet  each 

obediently  follows  the  law  of  eternal  harmony. 

This  form  is  imperishable,  though  each  he  unlike 

every  other. 

* 
*  * 

The  motive  in  a  composition  with  program  bears 
within  itself  the  same  natural  necessity;  but  it 
must,  even  in  its  earliest  phase  of  development, 
renounce  its  own  proper  mode  of  growth  to  mould — 
or,  rather,  twist — itself  to  fit  the  needs  of  the 
program.  Thus  turned  aside,  at  the  outset,  from 
the  path  traced  by  nature,  it  finally  arrives  at  a 
wholly  unexpected  climax,  whither  it  has  been  led, 
not  by  its  own  organization,  but  by  the  way  laid 
down  in  the  program,  or  the  action,  or  the  philo- 
sophical idea. 

And  how  primitive  must  this  art  remain!  True, 
there  are  unequivocal  descriptive  effects  of  tone- 
painting  (from  these  the  entire  principle  took  its 

*  "  .  .  .  Beethoven,  dont  les  esquisses  thematiquct  ou 
elementaires  sont  innombrahles,  mais  qui,  sitfit  lea  th&mea 
trouv6s,  semble  par  cela  mOme  en  avoir  etabli  tout  la  deve- 
loppcment   .     .     ."     [Vincent  d'Isdy,  in '.' C6sar  Franck."] 


12  A  NEW   ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

rise),  but  these  means  of  expression  are  few  and 
trivial,  covering  but  a  very  small  section  of  .musical 
art.  Begin  with  the  most  self-evident  of  all,  the 
debasement  of  Tone  to  Noise  in  imitating  the 
sounds  of  Nature— the  rolling  of  thunder,  the  roar 
of  forests,  the  cries  of  animals;  then  those  somewhat 
less  evident,  symboHc— imitations  of  visual  impres- 
sions, Hke  the  lightning-flash,  springing  movement, 
the  flight  of  birds;  again,  those  intelligible  only 
through  the  mediation  of  the  reflective  brain,  such 
as  the  trumpet-call  as  a  warlike  symbol,  the  shawm 
to  betoken  ruralism,  march-rhythm  to  signify 
measured  strides,  the  chorale  as  vehicle  for  religious 
feeling.  Add  to  the  above  the  characterization  of 
nationalities— national  instruments  and  airs— and 
we  have  a  complete  inventory  of  the  arsenal  of 
program-music.  Movement  and  repose,  minor  and 
major,  high  and  low,  in  their  customary  signifi- 
cance, round  out  the  list.— These  are  auxiliaries, 
of  which  good  use  can  be  made  upon  a  broad 
canvas,  but  which,  taken  by  themselves,  are  no 
more  to  be  called  music  than  wax  figures  may  pass 

for  monuments.  :)• 

*  * 

And,  after  all,  what  can  the  presentation  of  a 
little  happening  upon  this  earth,  the  report  con- 
cerning an  annoying  neighbor — no  matter  whether 
in  the  next  room  or  in  an  adjoining  quarter  of  the 
globe — have  in  common  with  that  music  which 
pervades  the  universe  ? 


WHAT  MUSIC  EXPRESSES  I3 

To  music,  indeed,  it  is  given  to  set  in  vibration 
our  human  moods:  Dread  (Leporello),  oppression 
of  soul,  in\dgoration,  lassitude  (Beethoven's  last 
Quartets),  decision  (Wotan),  hesitation,  despond- 
ency, encouragement,  harshness,  tenderness,  excite- 
ment, tranquillization,  the  feeling  of  surprise  or 
expectancy,  and  still  others;  hkewise  the  inner  echo 
of  external  occurrences  which  is  bound  up  in  these 
moods  of  the  soul.  But  not  the  moving  cause 
itself  of  these  spiritual  affections; — not  the  joy  over 
an  avoided  danger,  not  the  danger  itself,  or  the 
kind  of  danger  which  caused  the  dread;  an  emo- 
tional state,  yes,  but  not  the  psychic  species  of 
this  emotion,  such  as  envy,  or  jealousy;  and  it  is 
equally  futile  to  attempt  the  expression,  through 
music,  of  moral  characteristics  (vanity,  clever- 
ness), or  abstract  ideas  like  truth  and  justice.  Is 
it  possible  to  imagine  how  a  poor,  but  contented 
man  could  be  represented  by  music?  The  con- 
tentment, the  soul-state,  can  be  interpreted  by 
music;  but  where  does  the  poverty  appear,  or  the 
important  ethic  problem  stated  in  the  words  "poor, 
but  contented"?  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
"poor"  connotes  a  phase  of  terrestrial  and  social 
conditions  not  to  be  found  in  the  eternal  harmony. 
And  Music  is  a  part  of  the  vibrating  universe. 


I  may  be  allowed  to  subjoin  a  few  subsidiary 
reflections: — ^The  greater  part  of  modern  theatre 


14  A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

music  suffers  from  the  mistake  of  seeking  to  repeat 
the  scenes  passing  on  the  stage,  instead  of  ful- 
filling its  own  proper  rnission  of  interpreting  the 
soul-states  of  the  persons  represented.  When  the 
scene  presents  the  illusion  of  a  thunderstorm,  this 
is  exhaustively  apprehended  by  the  eye.  Never- 
theless, nearly  all  composers  strive  to  depict  the 
storm  in  tones — which  is  not  only  a  needless  and 
feebler  repetition,  but  likewise  a  failure  to  perform 
their  true  function.  The  person  on  the  stage  is 
either  psychically  influenced  by  the  thunderstorm, 
or  his  mood,  being  absorbed  in  a  train  of  thought 
of  stronger  influence,  remains  unaffected.  The 
storm  is  visible  and  audible  without  aid  from 
music;  it  is  the  invisible  and  inaudible,  the  spiritual 
processes  of  the  personages  portrayed,  which  music 

should  render  intelligible. 

* 
*  * 

Again,  there  are  "obvious"  psychic  conditions 
on  the  stage,  whereof  music  need  take  no  account. 
•  Suppose  a  theatrical  situation  in  which  a  convivial 
company  is  passing  at  night  and  disappears  from 
view,  while  in  the  foreground  a  silent,  envenomed 
duel  is  in  progress.  Here  the  music,  by  means  of 
continuing  song,  should  keep  in  mind  the  jovial 
company  now  lost  to  sight ;  the  acts  and  feelings 
of  the  pair  in  the  foreground  may  be  understood 
without  further  commentary,  and  the  music — 
dramatically  speaking — ought  not  to  participate  in 
their  action  and  break  the  tragic  silence. 


NOTATION    VERSUS  EMOTION  1 5 

Measurably  justified,  in  my  opinion,  is  the  plan 
of  the  old  opera,  which  concentrated  and  musically 
rounded  out  the  passions  aroused  by  a  moving 
dramatic  scene  in  a  piece  of  set  form  (the  aria). 
Word  and  stage-play  conveyed  the  dramatic  prog- 
ress of  the  action,  followed  more  or  less  meagrely 
by  musical  recitative;  arrived  at  the  point  of  rest, 
music  resumed  the  reins.  This  is  less  extrinsic  than 
some  would  now  have  us  believe.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  was  the  ossified  form  of  the  "aria"  itself 
which  led  to  inveracity  of  expression  and  decadence. 


'T^HE  audible  presentation,  the  "performance," 
-*-  of  music,  its  emotional  interpretation,  derives 
from  those  free  heights  whence  descended  the  Art 
itself.  Where  the  art  is  threatened  by  earthli- 
ness,  it  is  the  part  of  interpretation  to  raise  it  and 
reendow  it  with  its  primordial  essence. 

Notation,  the  writing  out  of  compositions,  is 
primarily  an  ingenious  expedient  for  catching  an 
inspiration,  with  the  purpose  of  exploiting  it  later. 
But  notation  is  to  improvisation  as  the  portrait 
to  the  living  model.  It  is  for  the  interpreter  to 
resolve  the  rigidity  of  the  signs  into  the  primitive 
emotion. 

But  the  lawgivers  require  the  interpreter  to 
reproduce  the  rigidity  of  the  signs;  they  consider 
his  reproduction  the  nearer  to  perfection,  the  more 
closely  it  clings  to  the  signs. — 


1 6  A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

What  the  composer's  inspiration  necessarily 
loses*  through  notation,  his  interpreter  should 
restore  by  his  own. 

To  the  lawgivers,  the  signs  themselves  are  the 
most  important  matter,  and  are  continually  grow- 
ing in  their  estimation;  the  new  art  of  music  is 
derived  from  the  old  signs — and  these  now  stand  for 
musical  art  itself. 

If  the  lawgivers  had  their  way,  any  given  com- 
position would  always  be  reproduced  in  precisely 

*How  strongly  notation  influences  style  in  music,  and 
fetters  imagination,  how  "  form  "  grew  up  out  of  it  and  from 
form  arose  "  conventionalism  "  in  expression,  is  shown  very 
convincingly  and  avenges  itself  in  tragic  wise  in  E.  T.  A. 
Hoffmann,  who  occurs  to  me  here  as  a  typical  example. 

This  remarkable  man's  mental  conceptions,  lost  in  vision- 
ary moods  and  revelling  in  transcendentalism,  as  his  writings 
set  forth  in  oft  inimitable  fashion,  must  naturally — so  one 
would  infer — have  found  in  the  dreamlike  and  transcendental 
art  of  tones  a  language  and  mode  of  expression  peculiarly 
congenial. 

The  veil  of  mysticism,  the  secret  harmonies  of  Nature,  the 
thrill  of  the  supernatural,  the  twilight  vagueness  of  the 
borderland  of  dreams,  everything,  in  fact,  which  he  so 
effectively  limned  with  the  precision  of  words — all  this,  one 
would  suppose,  he  could  have  interpreted  to  fullest  effect  by 
the  aid  of  music.  And  yet,  comparing  Hoffmann's  best 
musical  work  with  the  weakest  of  his  literary  productions, 
you  will  discover  to  your  sorrow  how  a  conventional  system 
of  measures,  periods  and  keys — whereto  the  hackneyed 
opera-style  of  the  time  adds  its  share — could  turn  a  poet  into 
a  Philistine.  But  that  his  fancy  cherished  another  ideal  of 
music,  we  learn  from  many,  and  frequently  admirable,  obser- 
vations of  Hoffmann  the  litterateur. 


NOTATION  AND  TRANSCRIPTION  1 7 

the  same  tempo,  whensoever,  by  whomsoever,  and 
imder  whatsoever  conditions  it  might  be  performed. 

But,  it  is  not  possible;  the  buoyant,  expansive 
nature  of  the  divine  child  rebels — it  demands  the 
opposite.  Each  day  begins  differently  from  the 
preceding,  yet  always  with  the  flush  of  dawn. — 
Great  artists  play  their  own  works  differently  at 
each  repetition,  remodel  them  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment,  accelerate  and  retard,  in  a  way  which 
they  could  not  indicate  by  signs — and  always 
according  to  the  given  conditions  of  that  "eternal 
harmony." 

And  then  the  lawgiver  chafes,  and  refers  the 
creator  to  his  own  handwriting.  As  matters  stand 
to-day.  the  lawgiver  has  the  best  of  the  argument. 


"Notation"  ("writing  down")  brings  up  the 
subject  of  Transcription,  nowadays  a  term  much 
misunderstood,  almost  discreditable.  The  frequent 
antagonism  which  I  have  excited  with  "transcrip- 
tions," and  the  opposition  to  which  an  ofttimes 
irrational  criticism  has  provoked  me,  caused  me  to 
seek  a  clear  understanding  of  this  point.  My  final 
conclusion  concerning  it  is  this:  Every  notation 
is,  in  itself,  the  transcription  of  an  abstract  idea. 
The  instant  the  pen  seizes  it,  the  idea  loses  its 
original  form.  The  very  intention  to  write  down 
the  idea,  compels  a  choice  of  measure  and  key. 


l8  A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

The  form,  and  the  musical  agency,  which  the  com- 
poser must  decide  upon,  still  more  closely  define 
the  way  and  the  limits. 

It  is  much  the  same  as  with  man  himself.  Born 
naked,  and  as  yet  without  definite  aspirations,  he 
decides,  or  at  a  given  moment  is  made  to  decide, 
upon  a  career.  From  the  moment  of  decision, 
although  much  that  is  original  and  imperishable 
in  the  idea  or  the  man  may  hve  on,  either  is 
depressed  to  the  type  of  a  class.  The  musical  idea 
becomes  a  sonata  or  a  concerto;  the  man,  a  soldier 
or  a  priest.  That  is  an  Arrangement  of  the  original. 
From  this  first  transcription  to  a  second  the  step 
is  comparatively  short  and  unimportant.  And  yet 
it  is  only  the  second,  in  general,  of  which  any 
notice  is  taken;  overlooking  the  fact,  that  a  tran- 
scription does  not  destroy  the  archetype,  which  is, 
therefore,  not  lost  through  transcription. 

Again,  the  performance  of  a  work  is  also  a  tran- 
scription, and  still,  whatever  liberties  it  may  take, 
it  can  never  annihilate  the  original. 

For  the  musical  art-work  exists,  before  its  tones 
resound  and  after  they  die  away,  complete  and 
intact.  It  exists  both  within  and  outside  of  time, 
and  through  its  nature  we  can  obtain  a  definite 
conception  of  the  otherwise  intangible  notion  of  the 
Ideality  of  Time. 

For  the  rest,  most  of  Beethoven's  piano  com- 
positions sound  like  transcriptions  of  orchestral 
works ;  most  of  Schumann's  orchestral  compositions, 


WTIAT   IS   MUSICAL?  1 9 

like    arrangements  from   pieces   for  the    piano — 
and  they  are  so,  in  a  way. 


Strangely  enough,  the  Variation-Form  is  highly 
esteemed  by  the  Worshippers  of  the  Letter.  That 
is  singular;  for  the  variation-form — when  built  up 
on  a  borrowed  theme — produces  a  whole  series  of 
^^ arrangements^^  which,  besides,  are  least  respectful 
when  most  ingenious. 

So  the  arrangement  is  not  good,  because  it  varies 
the  original;  and  the  variation  is  good,  although  it 
^^ arranges"  the  original. 

^  I  ^HE  term  "musikalisch"  (musical)  is  used  by 
-^  the  Germans  in  a  sense  foreign  to  that  in 
which  any  other  language  employs  it.*  It  is  a 
conception  belonging  to  the  Germans,  and  not  to 
culture  in  general;  the  expression  is  incorrect  and 
untranslatable.  "Musical"  is  derived  from  music, 
like  "poetical"  from  poetry,  or  "physical"  from 
physic(s).  When  I  say,  "Schubert  was  one  of  the 
most  musical  among  men,"  it  is  the  same  as  if  I 
should  say,  "Helmholtz  was  one  of  the  most 
physical  among  men."  That  is  musical,  which 
sounds  in  rhythms  and  intervals.     A  cupboard  can 

*  Thf;  author  probably  had  in  mind  the  I:in^;uuKcs  of 
BouthcTri  Europe  ;  the  word  is  oinpioyed  in  Knj^lish,  and  in 
the  tongues  of  the  Scandinavian  proup,  with  precisely  the 
same  meaning  as  in  German.     [Translator's  Notel 


20  A  NEW  ESTHETIC   OF  MUSIC 

be  "musical,"  if  "music- works"  be  enclosed  in  it* 
In  a  comparative  sense,  "musical"  may  have  the 
further  signification  of  "euphonious." — "My  verses 
are  too  musical  to  bear  setting  to  music,"  a  noted 
poet  once  remarked  to  me. 

"  Spirits  moving  musically 
To  a  lute's  well-tuned  law," 

writes  Edgar  Allan  Poe.  Lastly,  one  may  speak 
quite  correctly  of  "musical  laughter,"  because  it 
sounds  like  music. 

Taking  the  signification  in  which  the  term  is 
applied  and  almost  exclusively  employed  in 
German,  a  musical  person  is  one  who  manifests  an 
inclination  for  music  by  a  nice  discrimination  and 
sensitiveness  with  regard  to  the  technical  aspects 
of  the  art.  By  "technics"  I  mean  rhythm, 
harmony,  intonation,  part-leading,  and  the  treat- 
ment of  themes.  The  more  subtleties  he  is  capable 
of  hearing  or  reproducing  in  these,  the  more 
"musical"  he  is  held  to  be. 

In  view  of  the  great  importance  attached  to 
these  elements  of  the  art,  this  "musical"  tempera- 
ment has  naturally  become  of  the  highest  conse- 
quence. And  so  an  artist  who  plays  with  perfect 
technical  finish  should  be  deemed  the  most  musical 
player.     But  as  we  mean  by  "technics"  only  the 

*  The  only  kind  of  people  one  might  properly  call  musical, 
are  the  singers  ;  for  they  themselves  can  sound.  Similarly,  a 
clown  who  by  some  trick  produces  tones  when  he  is  touched^ 
might  be  called  a  psetido-musical  person. 


WHAT   IS  MUSICAL  ?  21 

mechanical  mastery  of  the  instrument,  the  terms 
"technical"  and  "musical"  have  been  turned  into 
opposites. 

The  matter  has  been  carried  so  far  as  to  call  a 
composition  itself  "musical,"*  or  even  to  assert  of 
a  great  composer  like  Berhoz  that  he  was  not 
sufficiently  musical. f  "Unmusical"  conveys  the 
strongest  reproach;  branded  thus,  its  object 
becomes  an  outlaw.l 

In  a  country  like  Italy,  where  all  participate  in 
the  delights  of  music,  this  differentiation  becomes 
superfluous,  and  the  term  corresponding  is  not 
found  in  the  language.  In  France,  where  a  living 
sense  of  music  does  not  permeate  the  people,  there 
are  musicians  and  non-musicians;  of  the  rest,  some 
"are  very  fond  of  music,"  and  others  "do  not  care 
for  it."  Only  in  Germany  is  it  made  a  point  of 
honor  to  be  "musical,"  that  is  to  say,  not  merely 
to  love  music,  but  more  especially  to  understand 
it  as  regards  its  technical  means  of  expression,  and 
to  obey  their  rules. 

A  thousand  hands  support  the  buoyant  child 
and  solicitously  attend  its  footsteps,  that  it  may 
not  soar  aloft  where  there  might  be  risk  of  a  serious 
fall.     But  it  is  still  so  young,  and  is  eternal;  the 

*  "  But  these  pieces  are  so  musical,"  a  violinist  once  re- 
marked to  me  of  a  four-hand  worklet  which  I  had  character- 
ized as  trivial. 

f "  My  dog  is  very  rnuMJcal,"  I  have  lu-ard  Haid  in  all 
seriouHncsa.     Should  the  dog  take  precedence  of  Beriioz  ? 

X  Such  has  been  my  own  fate. 


22  A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

day  of  its  freedom  will  come. — When  it  shall  cease 

to  be  "musical." 

* 
*  * 

'T^HE  creator  should  take  over  no  traditional 
-■-  law  in  blind  belief,  which  would  make  him 
view  his  own  creative  endeavor,  from  the  outset, 
as  an  exception  contrasting  with  that  law.  For 
his  individual  case  he  should  seek  out  and  formulate 
a  fitting  individual  law,  which,  after  the  first  com- 
plete realization,  he  should  annul,  that  he  himself 
may  not  be  drawn  into  repetitions  when  his  next 
work  shall  be  in  the  making. 

The  function  of  the  creative  artist  consists  in 
making  laws,  not  in  following  laws  ready  made. 
He  who  follows  such  laws,  ceases  to  be  a  creator. 

Creative  power  may  be  the  more  readily  recog- 
nized, the  more  it  shakes  itself  loose  from  tradition. 
But  an  intentional  avoidance  of  the  rules  cannot 
masquerade  as  creative  power,  and  still  less 
engender  it. 

The  true  creator  strives,  in  reality,  after  perfection 
only.  And  through  bringing  this  into  harmony 
with  his  own  individuality,  a  new  law  arises  without 
premeditation. 

So  narrow  has  our  tonal  range  become,  so 
stereotyped  its  form  of  expression,  that  nowadays 
there  is  not  one  familiar  motive  that  cannot  be 
fitted  with  some  other  familiar  motive  so  that  the 


MUSIC,   AND   SIGNS  FOR  MUSIC  23 

two  may  be  played  simultaneously.    Not  to  lose 

my  way  in  trifling,*  I  shall  refrain  from  giving 

examples.  * 

*  * 

That  which,  within  our  present-day  music,  most 
nearly  approaches  the  essential  nature  of  the  art, 
is  the  Rest  and  the  Hold  (Pause).  Consummate 
players,  impro\'isers,  know  how  to  employ  these 
instruments  of  expression  in  loftier  and  ampler 
measure.  The  tense  silence  between  two  move- 
ments— in  itself  music,  in  this  environment — leaves 
wider  scope  for  divination  than  the  more  deter- 
minate, but  therefore  less  elastic,  sound. 


What  we  now  call  our  Tonal  System  is  nothing 

more  than  a  set  of  "signs";  an  ingenious  device  to 

grasp  somewhat  of  that  eternal  harmony;  a  meagre 

pocket-edition  of  that  encyclopedic  work;  artificial 

light  instead  of  the  sun. — Have  you  ever  noticed 

how  people  gaze  open-mouthed  at  the  brilliant 

illumination  of  a  hall?    They  never  do  so  at  the 

millionfold  brighter  sunshine  of  noonday. — 

*  With  a  friend  I  once  indulged  in  such  trifling  in  order  to 
ascertain  how  many  commonly  known  compositions  were 
written  according  to  the  scheme  of  the  second  theme  in  the 
Adagio  of  the  Ninth  Symphony.  In  a  few  moments  we  had 
collected  some  fifteen  analogues  of  the  most  different  kinds, 
among  them  specimens  of  the  lowest  type  of  art.  And 
Beethoven  himself :— Is  the  theme  of  the  Finale  in  the 
*'  Fifth  "  any  other  than  tin-  one  wherewith  the  "Second  " 
introduces  its  Allegro  ?— or  than  thi;  i)rincipal  theme  of  the 
Third  Piano  Concerto,  only  in  minor  ? 


24  A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

And  so,  in  music,  the  signs  have  assumed  greater 
consequence  than  that  which  they  ought  to  stand 
for,  and  can  only  suggest. 

How  important,  indeed,  are  "Third,"  "Fifth," 
and  "Octave"!  How  strictly  we  divide  "conso- 
nances" from  "dissonances" — in  a  sphere  where  no 
dissonances  can  possibly  exist ! 

We  have  divided  the  octave  into  twelve  equi- 
distant degrees,  because  we  had  to  manage  some- 
how, and  have  constructed  our  instruments  in 
such  a  way  that  we  can  never  get  in  above  or 
below  or  between  them.  Keyboard  instruments, 
in  particular,  have  so  thoroughly  schooled  our  ears 
that  we  are  no  longer  capable  of  hearing  anything 
else — incapable  of  hearing  except  through  this 
impure  medium.  Yet  Nature  created  an  infinite 
gradation — infinite!  who  still  knows  it  nowadays?* 

*"The  equal  temperament  of  12  degrees, which  was  discussed 
theoretically  as  early  as  about  1500,  but  not  established  as  a 
principle  until  shortly  before  1700  (by  Andreas  Werkmeister), 
divides  the  octave  into  twelve  equal  portions  (semitones, 
hence  '  twelve-semitone  system ')  through  which  mean 
values  are  obtained  ;  no  interval  is  perfectly  pure,  but  all  are 
fairly  serviceable."  (Riemann,  "  Musik-Lexikon.")  Thus, 
through  Andreas  Werkmeister,  this  master-workman  in  art, 
we  have  gained  the  "  twelve-semitone "  system  with  inter- 
vals which  are  all  impure,  but  fairly  serviceable.  But  what 
is  "pure,"  and  what  "impure"  ?  We  hear  a  piano  "gone 
out  of  tune,"  and  whose  intervals  may  thus  have  become 
"  pure,  but  unserviceable,"  and  it  sounds  impure  to  us. 
The  diplomatic  "Twelve-semitone  system  "is  an  invention 
mothered  by  necessity  ;  yet  none  the  less  do  we  sedulously 
guard  its  imperfections. 


THE  CONTRACTED   SYSTEM  OF  MUSIC  25 

And  within  this  duodecimal  octave  we  have 
marked  out  a  series  of  fixed  intervals,  seven  in 
number,  and  founded  thereon  our  entire  art  of 
music.  What  do  I  say — one  series?  Two  such 
series,  one  for  each  leg:  The  Major  and  Minor 
Scales.  When  we  start  this  series  of  intervals  on 
some  other  degree  of  our  semitonic  ladder,  we 
obtain  a  new  key,  and  a  "foreign"  one,  at  that! 
How  violently  contracted  a  system  arose  from  this 
initial  confusion,*  may  be  read  in  the  law-books; 
we  will  not  repeat  it  here. 


We  teach  four-and-twenty  keys,  twelve  times 
the  two  Series  of  Seven;  but,  in  point  of  fact,  we 
have  at  our  command  only  two,  the  major  key 
and  the  minor  key.  TJie  rest  are  merely  trans- 
positions. By  means  of  the  several  transpositions 
we  are  supposed  to  get  dififerent  shades  of  harmony; 
but  this  is  an  illusion.  In  England,  under  the  reign 
of  the  high  "concert  pitch,"  the  most  familiar 
works  may  be  played  a  semitone  higher  than  they 
are  written,  without  changing  their  effect.  Singers 
transpose  an  aria  to  suit  their  convenience,  leaving 
untransposed  what  precedes  and  follows.  Song- 
writers not  infrequently  publish  their  own  com- 
positions in  three  different  pitches;  in  all  three 
editions  the  pieces  are  precisely  alike. 

*  It  is  termed  "The  Science  of  Ilurinony." 


26  A  NEW  ESTHETIC   OF  MUSIC 

When  a  well-known  face  looks  out  of  a  window, 
it  matters  not  whether  it  gazes  down  from  the 
first  story  or  the  third. 

Were  it  feasible  to  elevate  or  depress  a  landscape, 

far  as  eye  can  reach,  by  several  hundred  yards,  the 

pictorial  impression  would  neither  gain  nor  lose 

by  it. 

* 

Upon  the  two  Series  of  Seven,  the  major  key 
and  the  minor  key,  the  whole  art  of  music  has  been 
estabhshed;  one  limitation  brings  on  the  other. 

To  each  of  these  a  definite  character  has  been 
attributed;  we  have  learned  and  have  taught  that 
they  should  be  heard  as  contrasts,  and  they  have 
gradually  acquired  the  significance  of  symbols: — • 
Major  and  Minor — Maggiore  e  Minore — Content- 
ment and  Discontent — Joy  and  Sorrow — Light  and 
Shade.  The  harmonic  symbols  have  fenced  in  the 
expression  of  music,  from  Bach  to  Wagner,  and 
yet  further  on  until  to-day  and  the  day  after 
to-morrow.  Minor  is  employed  with  the  same 
intention,  and  has  the  same  effect  upon  us  now, 
as  two  hundred  years  ago.  Nowadays  it  is  no 
longer  possible  to  "compose"  a  funeral  march,  for 
it  already  exists,  once  for  all.  Even  the  least 
informed  non-professional  knows  what  to  expect 
when  a  funeral  march — whichever  you  please — is 
to  be  played.  Even  such  an  one  can  anticipate  the 
difference  between  a  symphony  in  major  and  one 


MAJOR  AND   MINOR  27 

in    minor.     We    are    tyrannized    by    Major    and 
Minor — by  the  bifurcated  garment. 


Strange,  that  one  should  feel  major  and  minor 

as  opposites.     They  both  present  the  same  face, 

now  more  joyous,  now  more  serious;  and  a  mere 

touch  of  the  brush  suffices  to  turn  the  one  into  the 

other.     The  passage  from  either  to  the  other  is 

easy  and  imperceptible;  when  it  occurs  frequently 

and  swiftly,  the  two  begin  to  shimmer  and  coalesce 

indistinguishably. — But  when  we   recognize   that 

major  and  minor  form  one  Whole  with  a  double 

meaning,   and   that  the   *'four-and- twenty  keys" 

are    simply    an    elevenfold    transposition    of    the 

original    twain,    we   arrive   unconstrainedly   at   a 

perception   of   the   unity   of  our  system  of  keys 

[tonality].     The    conceptions    of    "related"    and 

"foreign"  keys  vanish,  and  with  them  the  entire 

intricate    theory    of    degrees    and    relations.     We 

possess  one  single  key.    But  it  is  of  most  meagre 

sort. 

* 

*  * 

"Unity  of  the  key-system." 

— "I  suppose  you  mean  that  'key'  and  'key- 
system  '  are  the  sunbeam  and  its  diffraction  into 
colors?" 

No;  that  I  can  not  mean.  For  our  whole  system 
of  tone,  key,  and  tonality,  taken  in  its  entirety, 


28  A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

is  only  a  part  of  a  fraction  of  one  diffracted  ray 
from  that  Sun,  "Music,"  in  the  empyrean  of  the 
^'eternal  harmony." 


* 


However  deeply  rooted  the  attachment  to  the 
habitual,  and  inertia,  may  be  in  the  ways  and 
nature  of  humankind,  in  equal  measure  are  energy, 
and  opposition  to  the  existing  order,  characteristic 
of  all  that  has  Hfe.  Nature  has  her  wiles,  and 
persuades  man,  obstinately  opposed  though  he  be 
to  progress  and  change;  Nature  progresses  con- 
tinually and  changes  unremittingly,  but  with  so 
even  and  unnoticeable  movement  that  men  per- 
ceive only  quiescence.  Only  on  looking  backward 
from  a  distance  do  they  note  with  astonishment 
that  they  have  been  deceived. 

The  Reformer  of  any  given  period  excites  irrita- 
tion for  the  reason  that  his  changes  find  men 
unprepared,  and,  above  all,  because  these  changes 
are  appreciable.  The  Reformer,  in  comparison 
with  Nature,  is  undiplomatic;  and,  as  a  wholly 
logical  consequence,  his  changes  do  not  win  general 
acceptance  until  Time,  with  subtle,  imperceptible 
advance,  has  bridged  over  the  leap  of  the  self- 
assured  leader.  Yet  we  find  cases  in  which  the 
reformer  marched  abreast  of  the  times,  while  the 
rest  fell  behind.  And  then  they  have  to  be  forced 
and  lashed  to  take  the  leap  across  the  passage 
they  have  missed.    I  believe  that  the  major-and- 


NATURE,  AND  THE  REFORMER        29 

minor  key  with  its  transpositional  relations,  our 
^'twelve-semitone  system,"  exhibits  such  a  case  of 
falling  behind. 


That  some  few  have  already  felt  how  the  intervals 
of  the  Series  of  Seven  might  be  differently  arranged 
(graduated)  is  manifested  in  isolated  passages  by 
Liszt,  and  recently  by  Debussy  and  his  following, 
and  even  by  Richard  Strauss.  Strong  impulse, 
longing,  gifted  instinct,  all  speak  from  these 
strains.  Yet  it  does  not  appear  to  me  that  a 
conscious  and  orderly  conception  of  this  intensified 
means  of  expression  had  been  formed  by  these 
composers. 

I  have  made  an  attempt  to  exhaust  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  arrangement  of  degrees  within  the 
seven-tone  scale  ;  and  succeeded,  by  raising  and 
lowering  the  intervals,  in  establishing  one  hundred 
and  thirteen  different  scales.  These  113  scales 
(within  the  octave  C — C)  comprise  the  greater  part 
of  our  familiar  twenty-four  keys,  and,  furthermore, 
a  series  of  new  keys  of  peculiar  character.  But 
with  these  the  mine  is  not  exhausted,  for  we  are 
at  liberty  to  transpose  each  one  of  these  113, 
besides  the  blending  of  two  such  keys  in  harmony 
and  melody. 

There  is  a  significant  difference  between  the  sound 
of  the  scale  c-d''>-eb-f'?-(^i-at>-bb-c  when  c  is  taken  as 
tonic,  and  the  scale  of  d'>.  minor.     By  giving  it  the 


30  A  NEW  ESTHETIC   OF  MUSIC 

customary  C-major  triad  as  a  fundamental  har- 
mony, a  novel  harmonic  sensation  is  obtained. 
But  now  listen  to  this  same  scale  supported 
alternately  by  the  ^ -minor,  £7-major,  and  C-major 
triads,  and  you  cannot  avoid  a  feeling  of  delightful 
surprise  at  the  strangely  unfamiliar  euphony. 

But  how  would  a  lawgiver  classify  the  tone-series 
c-d  \>-e  \>-fb-g-a-b-c,  c-d  b-e  '^-f-g  b-a-b-c,  c-d-e  'o-f\)-g  o-a- 
b-c,  c-d'9-e-f-g^-a-bb-c? — or  these,  forsooth:  c-d-e\>- 
f\>-g-a ^b-c,  c-d-e b-f^-g H-a-b-c, c-d^-e \>-f^-g ^-a-b ^-c? 

One  cannot  estimate  at  a  glance  what  wealth  of 
melodic  and  harmonic  expression  would  thus  be 
opened  up  to  the  hearing;  but  a  great  many  novel 
possibihties  may  be  accepted  as  certain,  and  are 
perceptible  at  a  glance. 


With  this  presentation,  the  unity  of  all  keys  may 

be  considered  as  finally  pronounced  and  justified.  A 

kaleidoscopic  blending  and  interchanging  of  twelve 

semitones  within  the  three-mirror  tube  of  Taste, 

Emotion,  and  Intention — the  essential  feature  of 

the  harmony  of  to-day. 

* 
*  * 

The  harmony  of  to-day,  and  not  for  long;  for  all 
signs  presage  a  revolution,  and  a  next  step  toward 
that  "eternal  harmony."  Let  us  once  again  call 
to  mind,  that  in  this  latter  the  gradation  of  the 
octave  is  infinite,  and  let  us  strive  to  draw  a  little 


INFINITE   HARMONY  3 1 

nearer  to  infinitude.  The  tripartite  tone  (third  of 
a  tone)  has  for  some  time  been  demanding  admit- 
tance, and  we  have  left  the  call  unheeded.  Who- 
ever has  experimented,  like  myself  (in  a  modest 
way),  with  this  interval,  and  introduced  (either 
with  voice  or  with  violin)  two  equidistant  inter- 
mediate tones  between  the  extremes  of  a  whole 
tone,  schooling  his  ear  and  his  precision  of  attack, 
will  not  have  failed  to  discern  that  tripartite  tones 
are  wholly  independent  intervals  with  a  pronounced 
character,  and  not  to  be  confounded  with  ill-tuned 
semitones.  They  form  a  refinement  in  chromatics 
based,  as  at  present  appears,  on  the  whole-tone 
scale.  Were  we  to  adopt  them  without  further 
preparation,  we  should  have  to  give  up  the  semi- 
tones and  lose  our  "minor  third"  and  "perfect 
fifth;"  and  this  loss  would  be  felt  more  keenly  than 
the  relative  gain  of  a  system  of  eighteen  one-third 
tones. 

But  there  is  no  apparent  reason  for  giving  up 
the  semitones  for  the  sake  of  this  new  system.  By 
retaining,  for  each  whole  tone,  a  semitone,  we 
obtain  a  second  series  of  whole  tones  lying  a 
semitone  higher  than  the  original  series.  Then,  by 
dividing  this  second  series  of  whole  tones  into 
third-tones,  each  third-tone  in  the  lower  series  will 
be  matched  by  a  semitone  in  the  higher  series. 

Thus  we  have  really  arrived  at  a  system  of 
whole  tones  divided  into  sixths  of  a  tone;  and  we 
may  be  sure  that  even  sixth-tones  will  sometime 


32 


A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 


be  adopted  into  musical  speech.  But  the  tonal 
system  above  sketched  must  first  of  all  train  the 
hearing  to  thirds  of  a  tone,  without  giving  up  the 
semitones. 

To  summarize:  We  may  set  up  either  two 
series  of  third-tones,  with  an  interval  of  a  semitone 
between  the  series;  or,  the  usual  semitonic  series 
thrice  repeated  at  the  interval  of  one-third  of  a  tone. 

Merely  for  the  sake  of  distinction,  let  us  call 
the  first  tone  C,  and  the  next  third-tones  CJt,  and 
D  b ;  the  first  semitone  (small)  c,  and  its  following 
thirds  c  tf  and  J  b ;  the  result  is  fully  explained  by 
the  table  below : 


w 


'^ 


c5 


db 


dS 


eb 


ejt 


fb 


it 


^ 


g« 


ab 


aj 


bb 


P 


c$ 


Db 


D 


DJ 


Eb 


E 


n 


Ft> 


F« 


Gb 


■$=- 


G$ 


Ab 


AJ 


Bb 


etc. 


A  preliminary  expedient  for  notation  might  be, 
to  draw  six  hnes  for  the  staff,  using  the  lines  for 
the  whole  tones  and  the  spaces  for  the  semitones: 


-m        g 


I22Z 


then  indicating  the  third-tones  by  sharps  and  flats: 


etc. 


THE   TRIPARTITE   TONE  33 

The  question  of  notation  seems  to  me  sub- 
ordinate. On  the  other  hand,  the  question  is 
important  and  imperious,  how  and  on  what  these 
tones  are  to  be  produced.  Fortunately,  while 
busied  with  this  essay,  I  received  from  America 
direct  and  authentic  intelligence  which  solves  the 
problem  in  a  simple  manner.  I  refer  to  an  inven- 
tion by  Dr.  Thaddeus  Cahill.*  He  has  constructed 
a  comprehensive  apparatus  which  makes  it  possible 
to  transform  an  electric  current  into  a  fixed  and 
mathematically  exact  number  of  vibrations.  As 
pitch  depends  on  the  number  of  vibrations,  and 
the  apparatus  may  be  "set"  on  any  number 
desired,  the  infinite  gradation  of  the  octave  may 
be  accomphshed  by  merely  moving  a  lever  corre- 
sponding to  the  pointer  of  a  quadrant. 

Only  a  long  and  careful  series  of  experiments, 
and  a  continued  training  of  the  ear,  can  render 
this  unfamiliar  material  approachable  and  plastic 
for  the  coming  generation,  and  for  Art. 


And  what  a  vista  of  fair  hopes  and  dreamlike 
fancies  is  thus  opened  for  them  both!  Who  has 
not  dreamt  that  he  could  float  on  air?  and  firmly 

* "  New  Music  for  an  Old  World."  Dr.  Thaddeus 
Cahill's  Dynamophone,  an  extraordinary  electrical  invention 
for  producing  Hcientifically  perfect  music.  Article  in 
McClure's  Magazine  for  July,  1906,  by  Ray  Stannard 
Baker.  Readers  interested  in  the  details  of  this  invention 
are  referred  to  the  above-mentioned  magazine  article. 


34  A   NEW  ESTHETIC   OF  MUSIC 

believed  his  dream  to  be  reality? — Let  us  take 
thought,  how  music  may  be  restored  to  its  primi- 
tive, natural  essence;  let  us  free  it  from  architec- 
tonic, acoustic  and  esthetic  dogmas;  let  it  be  pure 
invention  and  sentiment,  in  harmonies,  in  forms, 
in  tone-colors  (for  invention  and  sentiment  are 
not  the  prerogative  of  melody  alone);  let  it  follow 
the  line  of  the  rainbow  and  vie  with  the  clouds 
in  breaking  sunbeams ;  let  Music  he  naught  else  than 
Nature  mirrored  by  and  reflected  from  the  human 
breast;  for  it  is  sounding  air  and  floats  above 
and  beyond  the  air ;  within  Man  himself  as  univer- 
sally and  absolutely  as  in  Creation  entire;  for  it 
can  gather  together  and  disperse  without  losing  in 
intensity. 


TN  his  book  "Beyond  the  Good  and  the  Bad" 
■*■  (Jenseits  von  Gut  und  Bose)  Nietzsche  says: 
"With  regard  to  German  music  I  consider  pre- 
caution necessary  in  various  ways.  Assuming  that 
a  person  loves  the  South  (as  I  love  it)  as  a  great 
training-school  for  health  of  soul  and  sense  in 
their  highest  potency,  as  an  uncontrollable  flood 
and  glamour  of  sunshine  spreading  over  a  race  of 
independent  and  self-reliant  beings; — well,  such  an 
one  will  learn  to  be  more  or  less  on  his  guard 
against  German  music,  because,  while  spoiling  his 
taste  anew,  it  undermines  his  health. 
"Such  a  Southlander  (not  by  descent,  but  by 


NIETZSCHE   AND   GERMAN  MUSIC  35 

belief)  must,  should  he  dream  of  the  future  of 
music,  likewise  dream  of  a  redemption  of  music 
from  the  North,  while  in  his  ears  there  rings  the 
prelude  to  a  deeper,  mightier,  perchance  a  more 
evil  and  more  mysterious  music,  a  super- German 
music,  which  does  not  fade,  wither  and  die  away 
in  view  of  the  blue,  sensuous  sea  and  the  splendor 
of  Mediterranean  skies,  as  all  German  music  does; — 
a  super-European  music,  that  asserts  itself  even 
amid  the  tawny  sunsets  of  the  desert,  whose  soul 
is  allied  vnth.  the  palm-tree,  and  can  consort  and 
prowl  with  great,  beautiful,  lonely  beasts  of  prey. 

"I  could  imagine  a  music  whose  rarest  charm 
should  consist  in  its  complete  divorce  from  the 
Good  and  the  Bad; — only  that  its  surface  might 
be  ruffled,  as  it  were,  by  a  longing  as  of  a  sailor 
for  home,  by  variable  golden  shadows  and  tender 
frailties: — an  Art  which  should  see  fleeing  toward 
it,  from  afar  off,  the  hues  of  a  perishing  moral 
world  become  wellnigh  incomprehensible,  and 
which  should  be  hospitable  and  profound  enough 
to  harbor  such  belated  fugitives." 

And  Tolstoi  transmutes  a  landscape-impression 
into  a  musical  impression  when  he  writes,  in 
"Lucerne":  "Neither  on  the  lake,  nor  on  the 
mountains,  nor  in  the  skies,  a  single  straight  line, 
a  single  unmixed  color,  a  single  point  of  repose; — 
everywhere  movement,  irregularity,  caprice,  vari- 
ety, an   incessant   interplay  of   shades  and  lines, 


36  A  NEW  ESTHETIC   OF  MUSIC 

and  in  it  all  the  reposefulness,  softness,  harmony 
and  inevitableness  of  Beauty." 

Will  this  music  ever  be  attained? 

"Not  all  reach  Nirvana;  but  he  who,  gifted  from 
the  beginning,  learns  everything  that  one  ought 
to  learn,  experiences  all  that  one  should  experience, 
renounces  what  one  should  renounce,  develops 
what  one  should  develop,  realizes  what  one 
should  realize — he  shall  reach  Nirvana."*  (Kern, 
Geschichte  des  Buddhismus  in  Indien.) 

If  Nirvana  be  the  realm  "beyond  the  Good  and 
the  Bad,"  one  way  leading  thither  is  here  pointed 
out.  A  way  to  the  very  portal.  To  the  bars  that 
divide  Man  from  Eternity— or  that  open  to  admit 
that  which  was  temporal.  Beyond  that  portal 
sounds  music.  Not  the  strains  of  "musical  art."t — 
It  may  be,  that  we  must  leave  Earth  to  find  that 
music.  But  only  to  the  pilgrim  who  has  succeeded 
on  the  way  in  freeing  himself  from  earthly  shackles, 
shall  the  bars  open. 


*  As  if  anticipating  my  thoughts,  M.  Vincent  d'Indy  has 
just  written  me  :  "...  laissant  de  cote  les  contin- 
gences  et  les  petitesses  de  la  vie  pour  regarder  constamment 
vers  xm  ideal  qu'on  ne  pourra  jamais  atteindre,  mais  dont  il 
est  permis  de  se  rapprocher." 

1 1  think  I  have  read,  somewhere,  that  Liszt  confined  his 
Dante  Symphony  to  the  two  movements.  Inferno  and 
Purgatorio,  "  because  our  tone-speech  is  inadequate  to  ex- 
press the  felicities  of  Paradise." 


ADDENDA 

"CREELING — like  honesty — is  a  moral  point  of 
■*-  honor,  an  attribute  of  whose  possession  no 
one  will  permit  denial,  which  claims  a  place  in  life 
and  art  alike.  But  while,  in  Hfe,  a  want  of  feehng 
may  be  forgiven  to  the  possessor  of  a  more  brilliant 
attribute,  such  as  bravery  or  impartial  justice,  in 
art  feeling  is  held  to  be  the  highest  m.oral  quali- 
fication. 

In  music,  however,  feeling  requires  two  consorts, 
taste  and  style.  Now,  in  hfe,  one  encounters  real 
taste  as  seldom  as  deep  and  true  feehng;  as  for 
style,  it  is  a  province  of  art.  What  remains,  is  a 
species  of  pseudo-emotion  which  must  be  character- 
ized as  lachr^'mose  hysteria  or  turgidity.  And, 
above  all,  people  insist  upon  having  it  plainly 
paraded  before  their  eyes!  It  must  be  underscored, 
so  that  everybody  shall  stop,  look,  and  listen. 
The  audience  sees  it,  greatly  magnified,  thrown  on 
the  screen,  so  that  it  dances  before  the  vision  in 
vague,  importunate  vastness;  it  is  cried  on  the 
streets,  to  summon  them  that  dwell  remote  from 
art;  it  is  gilded,  to  make  the  destitute  stare  in 
amaze. 

For  in  life,  too,  the  expressions  of  feeling,  by 
mien  and  words,  are  oftencst  employed;  rarer, 
and    more    genuine,    is    that    feeling    which    acts 


38  A  NEW  ESTHETIC   OF  MUSIC 

without  talk;  and  most  precious  is  the  feeling  which 
hides  itself. 

"Feeling"  is  generally  understood  to  mean 
tenderness,  pathos,  and  extravagance,  of  expression. 
But  how  much  more  does  the  marvelous  flower 
"Emotion"  enfold!  Restraint  and  forbearance, 
renunciation,  power,  activity,  patience,  magna- 
nimity, joyousness,  and  that  all-controlling  intelli- 
gence wherein  feeling  actually  takes  its  rise. 

It  is  not  otherwise  in  Art,  which  holds  the  mirror 

'up  to  Life;  and  still  more  outspokenly  in  Music, 

which  repeats  the  emotions  of  Life — though  for 

this,  as  I  have  said,  taste  and  style  must  be  added; 

Style,  which  distinguishes  Art  from  Life. 

What  the  amateur  and  the  mediocre  artist 
attempt  to  express,  is  feehng  in  little,  in  detail, 
for  a  short  stretch. 

Feeling  on  a  grand  scale  is  mistaken  by  the 
amateur,  the  semi-artist,  the  public  (and  the 
critics  too,  unhappily!),  for  a  want  of  emotion, 
because  they  all  are  unable  to  hear  the  longer 
reaches  as  parts  of  a  yet  more  extended  whole. 
Feeling,  therefore,  is  likewise  economy. 

Hence,  I  distinguish  feeling  as  Taste,  as  Style, 
as  Economy.  Each  a  whole  in  itself,  and  each 
one-third  of  the  Whole.  Within  and  over  them 
rules  a  subjective  trinity:  Temperament,  Intelli- 
gence, and  the  instinct  of  Equipoise. 

These  six  carry  on  a  dance  of  such  subtility  in 
the  choice  of  partners  and  intertwining  of  figures, 


FEELING  39 

in  the  bearing  and  the  being  borne,  in  advancing 
and  cartesying,  in  motion  and  repose,  that  no 
loftier  height  of  artistry  is  conceivable. 

When  the  chords  of  the  two  triads  are  in  perfect 
tune.  Fantasy  may — nay,  must — associate  with 
Feeling;  supported  by  the  Six,  she  will  not  degen- 
erate, and  out  of  this  combination  of  all  the  elements 
arises  Individuahty.  The  individuality  catches, 
like  a  lens,  the  light-impressions,  reflects  them, 
according  to  its  nature,  as  a  negative,  and  the 
hearer  perceives  the  true  picture. 


In  so  far  as  taste  participates  in  feeling,  the 
latter — like  all  else — alters  its  forms  of  expression 
with  the  period.  That  is,  one  aspect  or  another 
of  feeling  will  be  favored  at  one  time  or  another, 
onesidedly  cultivated,  especially  developed.  Thus, 
with  and  after  Wagner,  voluptuous  sensuality  came 
to  the  fore;  the  form  of  intensification  oj  passion 
is  still  unsurmounted  by  contemporary  composers. 
On  every  tranquil  beginning  followed  a  swift 
upward  surge.  Wagner,  in  this  point  insatiable, 
but  not  inexhaustible,  turned  from  sheer  necessity 
to  the  expedient,  after  reaching  a  climax,  of  starting 
afresh  softly,  to  soar  to  a  sudden  new  intensification. 

Modern  French  writers  exhibit  a  revulsion;  their 
feeling  is  a  reflexive  chastity,  or  perhaps  rather  a 
restrained   sensualism;   the   upstriving   mountain- 


40  A  NEW  ESTHETIC   OF   MUSIC 

paths  of  Wagner  are  succeeded  by  monotonous 

plains  of  twilight  uniformity. 

Thus  "style"  forms  itself  out  of  feeling,  when 

led  by  taste. 

* 

The  "Apostles  of  the  Ninth  Symphony"  have 
devised  the  notion  of  "depth"  in  music.  It  is 
still  current  at  face-value,  especially  in  Germanic 
lands. 

There  is  a  depth  of  feeling,  and  a  depth  of 
thought;  the  latter  is  Hterary,  and  can  have  no 
application  to  tones.  Depth  of  feeling,  by  contrast, 
is  psychical,  and  thoroughly  germane  to  the  nature 
of  music.  The  Apostles  of  the  Ninth  Symphony 
have  a  peculiar  and  not  quite  clearly  defined 
estimate  of  "depth"  in  music.  Depth  becomes 
breadth,  and  the  attempt  is  made  to  attain  it 
through  weight;  it  then  discovers  itself  (through  an 
association  of  ideas)  by  a  preference  for  a  deep 
register,  and  (as  I  have  had  opportunity  to  observe) 
by  the  insinuation  of  a  second,  mysterious  notion, 
usually  of  a  literary  sort.  If  these  are  not  the 
sole  specific  signs,  they  are  the  most  important 
ones. 

To  every  disciple  of  philosophy,  however,  depth 
of  feeling  would  seem  to  imply  exhaustiveness  in 
feeling,  a  complete  absorption  in  the  given  mood. 

Whoever,  surrounded  by  the  full  tide  of  a 
genuine  carnival  crowd,  slinks  about  morosely  or 


ROUTINE  41 

even  indifferently,  neither  affected  nor  carried  away 
by  the  tremendous  self-satire  of  mask  and  motley, 
by  the  might  of  misrule  over  law,  by  the  vengeful 
feeling  of  wit  running  riot,  shows  himself  incapable 
of  sounding  the  depths  of  feeling.  This  gives 
further  confirmation  of  the  fact,  that  depth  of 
feehng  roots  in  a  complete  absorption  in  the 
given  mood,  however  frivolous,  and  blossoms  in 
the  interpretation  of  that  mood ;  whereas  the  cur- 
rent conception  of  deep  feeling  singles  out  only 
one  aspect  of  feeling  in  man,  and  specializes  that. 
In  the  so-called  "Champagne  Aria"  in  Don 
Giovanni  there  lies  more  "depth"  than  in  many  a 
funeral  march  or  nocturne: — Depth  of  feeling  also 
shows  in  not  wasting  it  on  subordinate  or  unim- 
portant matters. 

T^  OUTINE  is  highly  esteemed  and  frequently 
-■-^  required;  in  musical  "officialdom"  it  is  a 
sine  qua  non.  That  routine  in  music  should  exist 
at  all,  and,  furthermore,  that  it  can  be  nominated 
as  a  condition  in  the  musician's  bond,  is  another 
proof  of  the  narrow  confines  of  our  musical  art. 
Routine  signifies  the  acquisition  of  a  modicum  of 
experience  and  artcraft,  and  their  application  to 
all  cases  which  may  occur;  hence,  there  must  be 
an  astounding  number  of  analogous  cases.  Now, 
I  like  to  imagine  a  species  of  art-praxis  wherein 
each  case  should  be  a  new  one,  an  exception!  How 
helpless  and  impotent  would  the  army  of  practical 


42  A  NEW   ESTHETIC   OF   MUSIC 

musicians  stand  before  it! — in  the  end  they  would 
surely  beat  a  retreat,  and  disappear.  Routine 
transforms  the  temple  of  art  into  a  factory.  It 
destroys  creativeness.'  For  creation  means,  the 
bringing  form  out  of  the  void;  whereas  routine 
flourishes  on  imitation.  It  is  "poetry  made  to 
order."  It  rules  because  it  suits  the  generahty: 
In  the  theatre,  in  the  orchestra,  in  virtuosi,  in 
instruction.  One  longs  to  exclaim,  ''Avoid  routine! 
Let  each  beginning  be,  as  had  none  been  before! 
Know  nothing,  but  rather  think  and  feel!  For, 
behold,  the  myriad  strains  that  once  shall  sound 
have  existed  since  the  beginning,  ready,  afloat  in 
the  aether,  and  together  with  them  other  myriads 
that  shall  never  be  heard.  Only  stretch  forth  your 
hands,  and  ye  shall  grasp  a  blossom,  a  breath  of 
the  sea-breeze,  a  sunbeam;  avoid  routine,  for  it 
strives  to  grasp  only  that  wherewith  your  four 
walls  are  filled,  and  the  same  over  and  over  again; 
the  spirit  of  ease  so  infects  you,  that  you  will 
scarcely  leave  your  armchairs,  and  will  lay  hold 
only  of  what  is  nearest  to  hand.  And  myriad 
strains  are  there  since  the  beginning,  still  waiting 
for  manifestation!" 


"It  is  my  misfortune,  to  possess  no  routine," 
Wagner  once  wrote  Liszt,  when  the  composition 
of  "Tristan"  was  making  no  progress.  Thus 
Wagner  deceived  himself,  and  wore  a  mask  for 


RESPECT  THE   PIANOFORTE  !  43 

others.  He  had  too  much  routine,  and  his  com- 
posing-machinery was  thrown  out  of  gear,  just 
when  a  tangle  formed  in  the  mesh  which  only 
inspiration  could  unloose.  True,  Wagner  found 
the  clew  when  he  succeeded  in  throwing  off  routine; 
but  had  he  really  never  possessed  it,  he  would  have 
declared  the  fact  without  bitterness.  And,  after 
all,  this  sentence  in  Wagner's  letter  expresses  the 
true  artist-contempt  for  routine,  inasmuch  as  he 
waives  all  claim  to  a  quaUfication  which  he  thinks 
meanly  of,  and  takes  care  that  others  may  not 
invest  him  with  it.  This  self-praise  he  utters  with 
a  mien  of  ironic  desperation.  He  is,  in  very  truth, 
imhappy  that  composition  is  at  a  standstill,  but 
finds  rich  consolation  in  the  consciousness  that  his 
genius  is  above  the  cheap  expedients  of  routine; 
at  the  same  time,  with  an  air  of  modesty,  he 
sorrowfully  confesses  that  he  has  not  acquired  a 
training  belonging  to  the  craft. 

The  sentence  is  a  masterpiece  of  the  native 
cunning  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation;  but 
equally  proves — and  that  is  our  point — the  petti- 
ness of  routine  in  creative  work. 


"O  ESPECT  the  Pianoforte!  Its  disadvantages 
""■^  are  evident,  decided,  and  unquestionable: 
The  lack  of  sustained  tone,  and  the  pitiless, 
unyielding  adjustment  of  the  inalterable  semitonic 
scale. 


44  A  NEW  ESTHETIC  OF  MUSIC 

But  its  advantages  and  prerogatives  approach 
the  marvelous. 

It  gives  a  single  man  command  over  something 
complete;  in  its  potentialities  from  softest  to 
loudest  in  one  and  the  same  register  it  excels  all 
other  instruments.  The  trumpet  can  blare,  but 
not  sigh;  contrariwise  the  flute;  the  pianoforte  can 
do  both.  Its  range  embraces  the  highest  and 
deepest  practicable  tones.  Respect  the  Piano- 
forte! 

Let  doubters  consider  how  the  pianoforte  was 
esteemed  by  Bach,  Mozart,  Beethoven,  Liszt,  who 
dedicated  their  choicest  thoughts  to  it. 

And  the  pianoforte  has  one  possession  wholly 
peculiar  to  itself,  an  inimitable  device,  a  photo- 
graph of  the  sky,  a  ray  of  moonlight — the  Pedal. 

The  effects  of  the  pedal  are  unexhausted,  because 
they  have  remained  even  to  this  day  the  drudges 
of  a  narrow-souled  and  senseless  harmonic  theory; 
the  treatment  accorded  them  is  like  trying  to 
mould  air  or  water  into  geometric  forms.  Beet- 
hoven, who  incontestably  achieved  the  greatest 
progress  on  and  for  the  pianoforte,  divined  the 
mysteries  of  the  pedal,  and  to  him  we  owe  the 
first  liberties. 

The  pedal  is  in  ill-repute.  For  this,  absurd 
irregularities  must  bear  the  blame.  Let  us  experi- 
ment with  sensible  irregularities. 


l'envoi  45 

T  FELT  .  .  .  that  the  book  I  shall  write  will  be 
-■-  neither  in  English  nor  in  Latin;  and  this  for 
the  one  reason  .  .  .  namely,  that  the  language  in 
which  it  may  be  given  me  not  only  to  write,  but 
also  to  think,  will  not  be  Latin,  or  English,  or 
Italian,  or  Spanish,  but  a  language  not  even  one 
of  whose  words  I  know,  a  language  in  which  dumb 
things  speak  to  me,  and  in  which,  it  may  be,  I 
shall  at  last  have  to  respond  in  my  grave  to  an 
Unknown  Judge." 

(Von  Hoffmannsthal:    A  letter.) 


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